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An exploding door. I do not need to have that one sprung on me ever again.Heh - I mentioned this to my group when they had found some threads on the "you don't need Disable Device, just use an adamantine weapon on it" theory of adventuring (also, pockets of alchemical items to explode if someone cuts through the walls).
That reminds me of a true story from Organized Play (which one could no doubt slightly adapt somehow to use as an inspiration for something to put in a dungeon):
One of the party members was a Grenadier Alchemist who kept something like 20 or even 40 extra vials of acid and alchemist's fire on his person. We were confronted by a field of black tentacles with an enemy clownfishing behind it (or something like that). The Alchemist tosses a bomb in that direction and misses. I guess it was the scatter die that made it go into the tentacles, and the DM ruled that they wound up batting the bomb back...and after rolling to see where that sent it, it wound up in or adjacent to the Alchemist's space.
Remember how I just said this guy kept buckets of extra acid and fire on him?
Think of one of those early 1990's video games where you know you've destroyed the giant robot or evil fortress because it's suddenly being erupting in dozens of small explosions. That was what was threatening to happen to him.
A Reflex save may well not have been enough to save his life had I not been there to, OOC, ask him if those acid flasks (all of which he'd brewed himself, naturally) just happened to be a variety of acid that denatured when exposed to great heat, maybe?
He and the DM both gladly took the bait, and he survived - and after the adventure, he spent his 2 Prestige to take on 2 Porters to carry that stuff for him.
Remember how I just said this guy kept buckets of extra acid and fire on him?
Think of one of those early 1990's video games where you know you've destroyed the giant robot or evil fortress because it's suddenly being erupting in dozens of small explosions. That was what was threatening to happen to him.
A Reflex save may well not have been enough to save his life had I not been there to, OOC, ask him if those acid flasks (all of which he'd brewed himself, naturally) just happened to be a variety of acid that denatured when exposed to great heat, maybe?
He and the DM both gladly took the bait, and he survived - and after the adventure, he spent his 2 Prestige to take on 2 Porters to carry that stuff for him.
That's what a Double H Sack is for. :) Extra-dimensional space that is easy to get stuff out of.
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Put in 3 horrible trap rooms that have been sprug and the biddies of the previous tresspassers, then in 4th room don't put anything at all just an empty room that leads to the next room, that is trapped.
No, see the first four times have iterative sets of three formerly-trapped rooms (now sprung by the dead) and a "clean" room in between the next set.
Of course, the fifth time, the clean room is a Grimtooth room.
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A maze of twisty passages, all alike.
Failing that, let's rip off one of the dungeons from HeroQuest. You go into the castle/mine/dungeon/wherever, clear it of the goblins and orcs that want to use your skull as a coffee cup, and you go through the door beyond.
Roll 2d6. Per party member.
Yes, this might separate the party.
Yes, monsters should come a-callin' for them while Rojer the Ranger and Garret the Gunslinger are on the other side of the map from Derek the Cleric and Edvard Eddard, Evoker Subextraordinaire. (At the same time, Frank the Fighter and Rita the Rogue are about to have an extended makeout session on the literal dragon's horde of platinum and gold coins they wound up walking into.)
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Ok, this isn't on the level of some of those above, but I was pretty proud of it at the time.
Party is sleeping in the woods (yes, one was on guard). But they are all awoken by something large roaring and crashing through the woods. They have 2 rounds to prepare. They are getting ready to flatten the giant whatever before it can attack them.
Then the one with darkvision can see an ugly old female hobgoblin rushing toward them surprisingly fast carrying a squirming blanket wrapped bundle in her arms.
Sudden "Stop! Damsel in distress!" (Even if old and ugly.) Obviously we have to get whatever is chasing her (they can just see the shadow of something very big at the edge of the darkvision pushing trees aside) and somehow protect her (which means much more care with the AoE spells). They all move forward to stop whatever is pursuing her.
She rushes straight through their campsite and throws the bundle into the remains of their fire on her way past.
"Wait what?!?"
Cleric rushes back grabs the bundle... And takes 1 point of damage as the singed, howling, bear cub swipes at his hand. "A WHAT?!?"
Momma dire bear crashes into the clearing to see a line of blocking humanoids and behind that another humanoid holding her cub that is howling in pain.
Just to add insult to injury, several sneaky hobgoblins start throwing paper wasp nests into the clearing around the party.
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I got bored with dungeons not having enough atmosphere. made a d100 table of random crap one would run into in a dungeon, not creatures or traps...just stuff. the party runs into a blood stained boot.....4 hours later after they are done with perceptions,detect magics, detect traps and EVERYthing they could think of, they make a point to not touch the boot at all., fight the Necromancer down there, figure out the plot and solve the mystery ofthe missing villagers and are going to go back to the village to inform the elders of what happened ....but then the party says " WAIT! WE NEED TO GO BACK AND EXAMINE THE BLOODY BOOT!" gm troll level 5000. :)
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Deep in the bowels of a musty, ancient dungeon: An art museum, a bit small but otherwise almost on par with the Guggenheim (Louvre might be asking too much). The curator is a non-Evil beholder (because f!$# Wizards of the Coast and their ill-gotten concept-pinching ways). Maybe it has a "gift shop" where PCs can buy marvelous pigments, figurines of wondrous power, and other magical art supplies and works.
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Here's one I did once: Really weird dungeon geometries. One part was an Impossible Cube, and the other was A Maze of Twisty Little Passages, appearing on the projected 3-D map I made (with pencil and paper, mind you) something like a maze of elbow macaroni bits all connected together with deliberately no rhyme or reason. The whole area also had magnetic deposits around it to mess up compasses. Other parts of the dungeon were non-regular but less insane caves that connected to these parts and various other weird things (including a homage to a blend of Mos Eisley Cantina the lair of Jabba the Hutt, and yes, I did stat up Hutts).
One idea that I had considered, but never got to implement (feel free to run with it) was a dungeon complex that would have Teleportation blocking all around it, and the approach corridor first section had Stone Golems and Rust Monsters in it, then a combination Wall of Fire and vertical ascent too much for the Rust Monsters to climb even if they somehow survived the Wall of Fire, and then the next section had Iron Golems in it. Also keep in mind that this was designed under 1st Edition D&D (as was the above geometrically challenging dungeon).
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A room that is, for all intents and purposes, M. C. Escher's Relativity. Make it the scene of the climactic battle where all the combatants are hopping from one surface to another - or perhaps the center of gravity keeps randomly shifting every round, individually for each character (no falling damage in any case, though, if only for mercy's sake).
Not quite that room, but that does remind me of this story! :D
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Ring of Gaseous Form (cursed): When worn, the wearer and ring become gaseous. Unfortunately, the wearer can no longer find to ring or the finger to remove it. The character remains in gaseous form until a remove curse is cast.
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Oh, 'scuse me, oh, that smells terrible, Oof, man, look, no, it's not burritos, it's this riiiiiiiing~!
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A room that is, for all intents and purposes, M. C. Escher's Relativity. {. . .}
Actually, this would have been pretty cool in Hogwart's (Harry Potter series).
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I think this is possibly the single meanest encounter I have ever thrown at my PCs.
What the PCs see: A twenty foot by twenty foot stone room, its floor ten feet below the floor of the hallway leading in. In the center lies an ornate coffin with no lid. The interior of the coffin is lined with silk. A frail, emaciated man wearing expensive finery lies in the coffin with his arms crossed over his chest. A ring on his finger is set with a large, glowing gemstone. A wooden stake protrudes from the man's heart. The room is otherwise empty.
What is actually going on: The entire setup - coffin, man, ring, stake, everything - is a dread vampire failed-apotheosis mimic. The gemstone on the ring is actually the mimic's eye, so anyone who studies it too closely is targeted by a dominate. As soon as someone does something stupid, the mimic unleashes its horrific appearance, then casts deeper darkness as a surprise round. Anyone the mimic hits with a slam (or who touched the mimic) is grappled with no escape, making it easy for the mimic to pin and blood drain to death. For bonus points, the entrance to this room is not at ground level, making it very hard to find your way out in the dark.
I threw two separate parties at this encounter - both fled with half the party dead, bricked up the entrance to the room, and swore never to return. In both cases the party paladin was the first to die - one tried to behead the vampire to finish killing it (and of course got their sword stuck to the mimic) and the other got grappled right off and only carried a two handed weapon...
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If I remember correctly Hackmaster had a pretty good system for fleshing out dungeons with random stuff. But then again that system also had an ENTIRE random dungeon generator you could use.
I think one of the things you could find was just a random pool of colored water, was it acidic or not? Let your party be the judge. Man I freaked out a party one time with rooms filled with just pools of various colored water and colored (not shiny but colored) stones. Looking through my notes the water was fine but the stones were alchemical crayons that would light up in the dark (the crayon part was my own twist on it). It wasn't even in hackmaster, I just used their tables in Labyrinth Lords and it worked beautifully. I'm sure most of their tables you could bring to pathfinder and any mechanics you could work out rather easily.
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A room that is, for all intents and purposes, M. C. Escher's Relativity. {. . .}Actually, this would have been pretty cool in Hogwart's (Harry Potter series).
Have you ever seen the movie "Labyrinth"? The climax takes place in such a room.
EDIT: Link.
Hah! I see what you did there, Aaron. I see what you did there. :/
Um... what did I do? I just thought that anyone who wanted to see such a thing in a fantasy story might be interested. If there was anything clever in my comment, it was quite by accident.
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I think this is possibly the single meanest encounter I have ever thrown at my PCs.
I... I might have to borrow this. My Kingmaker group is getting ready to go after a vampire.
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A room that is, for all intents and purposes, M. C. Escher's Relativity.
Come to think of it, I once thought it might be cool to set a battle on Mechanus (a plane whose terrain consists of a series of interlocking cogs). The PCs could be on one cog and the enemies on a cog locked onto the PCs' one, such that gravity for the enemies would be perpendicular to the gravity the PCs experience. Maybe every 2 rounds, the cogs would turn, changing the relative position of the PCs to the enemies, and vice versa.
Um... what did I do? I just thought that anyone who wanted to see such a thing in a fantasy story might be interested. If there was anything clever in my comment, it was quite by accident.
My apologies, as it was a, hm, "joke" (by me) based off of that particular film's... 'legacy' or 'infamy', shall we say.
If you do not understand beyond that, count yourself blessed, as it cannot be unseen, and know that I found humor in a turn of phrase. :)
(I do love the film, however.)
Um... what did I do? I just thought that anyone who wanted to see such a thing in a fantasy story might be interested. If there was anything clever in my comment, it was quite by accident.My apologies, as it was a, hm, "joke" (by me) based off of that particular film's... 'legacy' or 'infamy', shall we say.
If you do not understand beyond that, count yourself blessed, as it cannot be unseen, and know that I found humor in a turn of phrase. :)
(I do love the film, however.)
I am very curious, as my fiance and I positively love that movie (that scene in particular). PM it if you must.
Beyond that, I thought you were more referring to the fact that you always tend to be the one to "have to do it yourself" and link things to youtube....
That said, I have long since wanted to run some warped-space Escher styled dungeons... But I can't seem to wrap my head around the logistics of combat positioning.
... fine, fine.
It's public now.
... David Bowie's crotch. It is features so daggum prominently in almost every scene. It's almost comical.
The film, which is quite excellent, has become well-known for the information within the spoiler on the internet.
In fact, ...
... the film is often taken metaphorically as the mental sexual awakening of Sara (the young female protagonist), and explains the goblin king's infatuation with her, the prominence of his crotch in all of his outfits and scenes, his obsession with a baby (add subtext for gender studies here), and the weird dystopic fantasy elements.
Effectively, Sara is moving from being a young girl to a woman (well, sort of), mentally, and thus things she held important as a young girl - cute fairies - are rejected and turned into ugly, worthless things, while things she once held as ugly (such as boys represented by Hoggle and Jared, and goblins - again represented by Jared) become either alluring or irritating but ultimately good things (if somewhat compromised my masculinity/Jared) in contrast to her earlier, more traditionally girl-ish and childish fantasies - trading those for the more dangerous ones like Jared.
There's... a lot more to it, but, really, that's all it boils down to.
(I don't particularly accept that interpretation, but I've had enough people tell me that "IT TOTALLY IS!" that it's... humorous?... to see subtle innuendo.
So, uh... enjoy, I guess?
(Just don't let it ruin the movie for you. It doesn't for me, but then again, I can't unsee once it has been seen either, so...)
EDIT: to fix tags
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... *facepalm*
Which is why it went so far over my head. I get the whole thing about the movie, my fiance has recently been indulging my new found pleasure to pick apart symbolism and hidden depth to any given tale. Labyrinth remains one we enjoy talking about quite often.
However... It seems the effect it had was to completely negate my pun-dar pertaining to heavy prevalent innuendo and cinematic structure. Hence, it didn't even register in my system, lol.
And yes... Bowie's crotch is freaking everywhere. Given how tight his pantaloons were, I'm not surprised. And I'm sure many of us here don't mind it one bit. But that's for another thread.
Speaking of Labyrinth, I once had a blind goblin bard sitting in a hedge maze, who asked the party when they entered "What have we here?"
When they replied with "nothing", he replied with "Nothing? Nothing? Nothing tra-la-la?!"
The moment someone claimed it was the goblin king, I dropped the actual mini on the map. Say hello to my little dragon friend!
Teach them to assume $#!& in my games :p.
If I remember correctly Hackmaster had a pretty good system for fleshing out dungeons with random stuff. But then again that system also had an ENTIRE random dungeon generator you could use.
{. . .}
For that matter, the DMG of 1st Edition AD&D had an entire random dungson generator. It was intended for some kind of solitaire play, but no reason you couldn't use it to generate a dungeon for players to go through. Mind you, this was completely noncomputerized (use tables + dice + pencil + paper), so it was rather laborious to use, even though workable.
For that matter, the DMG of 1st Edition AD&D had an entire random dungson generator. It was intended for some kind of solitaire play, but no reason you couldn't use it to generate a dungeon for players to go through. Mind you, this was completely noncomputerized (use tables + dice + pencil + paper), so it was rather laborious to use, even though workable.
I knew and gamed with a guy in the 80s who played this way almost exclusively, i.e. by himself. When he joined our game, he insisted on bringing a BARREL full of magic swords along that he'd gotten by exploring dungeons this way. The DM said no and this started an enmity between them that as far as I know still exists.
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A lighter/riddle alternative is that the effect ends if, after the voice issues the opening speech, everyone but one character sits down
Hahah! When I first read the demonic voice, this was literally my first impulse.
"My character sits down!"
I kept wanting to write that as a response, and only got more eager with each passing line.
- until one is left alive: I sit down!
- otherwise they are trapped: look, all of us but one sit!
- players who 'die' take 1d4 WIS and can't sleep: sitting! Onna ground!
- or fatigued and can't sleep: look, I'll lay down! It's like I'm dea!
- the winner suffers no ill effects: great! paladin or cleric stay standing! the rest of us lay down! feet in the air to be clear!
- no resources are used and no damage aside from 1d4 wis: look how completely down I aaaaaaaaaa~aaaam~!
- a everyone but one character sits down: dang it! ;P
:D
(Just thought I'd share.)
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Fog......a couple of rooms Silent Hill style.
I knew and gamed with a guy in the 80s who played this way almost exclusively, i.e. by himself. When he joined our game, he insisted on bringing a BARREL full of magic swords along that he'd gotten by exploring dungeons this way. The DM said no and this started an enmity between them that as far as I know still exists.
What was he planning to DO with a barrel full of magic swords? Get turned into a Marilith? (Actually sounds like a fitting fate, except that Marilith Demons are REALLY powerful.)
* * * * * * * *
EDIT: Got to link you to THIS.
Oh, sure, but that's the thing - as a player, I'd tell whatever fiend was responsible "No."
It's unreasonable for them to require that. And, you know, if we're going to die, we can at least die doing the right thing. Heaven is it's own kind of reward. :)
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If I remember correctly Hackmaster had a pretty good system for fleshing out dungeons with random stuff. But then again that system also had an ENTIRE random dungeon generator you could use.
{. . .}
For that matter, the DMG of 1st Edition AD&D had an entire random dungson generator. It was intended for some kind of solitaire play, but no reason you couldn't use it to generate a dungeon for players to go through. Mind you, this was completely noncomputerized (use tables + dice + pencil + paper), so it was rather laborious to use, even though workable.
Those random dungeon generator tables in the 1e AD&D DMG weren't really intended for solitaire play-- they were for a DM to use if he hadn't had time to prepare anything ahead of time. There is a line in the book about the possibility of using it for such a purpose-- I think Gary Gygax assumed that some people who wanted to play D&D might not have other people to play with.
Honestly, I still occasionally pull out those tables and use them to generate a dungeon map if I am staring at a blank sheet of graph paper.
If you want to see those tables, but no longer have a copy of the 1st ed DMG, they are reproduced on pages 156-160 of the OSRIC AD&D 1e retro-clone.
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Oh, sure, but that's the thing - as a player, I'd tell whatever fiend was responsible "No."
It's unreasonable for them to require that. And, you know, if we're going to die, we can at least die doing the right thing. Heaven is it's own kind of reward. :)
I actually have a similar puzzle but it doesn't involve a dream. It involves an illusory arena where the PCs will fight over a magical item that has a huge will save. All sub-dual, no spells, weapons, anything that does lethal damage will be accessible. The first time they see it, they all have to make DC 40 will saves (practically impossible for a level 5 character). For ever 1 HP of non-lethal damage they take, their will save gains a +1. So either they take enough damage to make the save and stop fighting or they keep failing saves and fight until unconscious. :D
EDIT: Got to link you to THIS.
Gads.
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Gads.EDIT: Got to link you to THIS.
Oh, you never heard the story?
I read a story about a wight dwarf being the baddy, but not a dragon. I'm so going to steal this.
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I... I might have to borrow this. My Kingmaker group is getting ready to go after a vampire.
From experience: When the vampire turns out to be a mimic, your players will groan. When they realize the mimic is a vampire, they will hate you for ever and for always. :)
For extra bonus points, put a couple of the coffin mimics from book 5 of carrion crown guarding the mimic vampire's actual coffin, so the party has no way of knowing which of the three coffins is the real target.
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I... I might have to borrow this. My Kingmaker group is getting ready to go after a vampire.From experience: When the vampire turns out to be a mimic, your players will groan. When they realize the mimic is a vampire, they will hate you for ever and for always. :)
For extra bonus points, put a couple of the coffin mimics from book 5 of carrion crown guarding the mimic vampire's actual coffin, so the party has no way of knowing which of the three coffins is the real target.
My players will now officially hate you. I do this kind of stuff regularly (such as an aberration that has Scent for light sources, and can 'devour' light to gain some buffs, usually temp hp). This is just cruel and unusual, I freaking love it.
For even more bonus points, have some of the Vampire Mimic's vampire spawn inside the coffin mimics, thus further confusing what the actual target is...
Am I grinning evilly? I feel like I'm grinning evilly. I must be, my face hurts. Hehehehehe...
Oh, wow, vampire spawn using mimic coffins as their coffins. That is vicious. Nice touch. :)
I... I might have to borrow this. My Kingmaker group is getting ready to go after a vampire.From experience: When the vampire turns out to be a mimic, your players will groan. When they realize the mimic is a vampire, they will hate you for ever and for always. :)
For extra bonus points, put a couple of the coffin mimics from book 5 of carrion crown guarding the mimic vampire's actual coffin, so the party has no way of knowing which of the three coffins is the real target.
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A room filled with mist. The archway above the entrance has one word engraved upon it.
Barovia
A room filled with mist. The archway above the entrance has one word engraved upon it.
Barovia
I don't get this reference. Care to explain?